10 special things about Ellie

In honor of Ellie's 3-month birthday tomorrow, I'm celebrating her quirks. Here are just a few of the things that make Ellie special:

1. Ellie will not take a pacifier. She doesn't like them and she spits them out immediately. Too bad the Easter Bunny screwed up and brought her 4 of them....

2. Ellie loves the song "New Slang" by The Shins. It's on the Garden State soundtrack, and she always quiets and listens when that track comes on. She seems to like Coldplay a lot, too. Our friend Stephanie got her the Coldplay Rockabye Baby CD, and she's enjoyed it since her days in the hospital. (So far, her musical taste is more like her Mumzy's than her Mama's. Clearly, I've got to start playing more Steely Dan for her.)

3. Ellie loves reading. She'll sit rapt through book after book--it's amazing! She's not yet showing a preference for a specific genre of book, so we read her everything from basic board books to complex picture books to the latest issue of Bust or Martha Stewart Living. She loves them all.

4. Similarly, Ellie loves looking at art. Whether it's the saxophone drawing in our living room (a favorite) or random art at Starbucks, you can count on Ellie to stare intently at any art around her.

5. When people meet Ellie for the first time, they always say the same exact thing: "She's SO alert!" And it's true, she is. She's been a curious, big-eyed baby since she was very young, and the older she gets, the more she takes in. Ellie doesn't miss a trick!

6. Ellie does not like riding in the car. She's slowly getting better about it, but the car is certainly not her favorite place. It's particularly bad after dark when she can't see anything except streetlights flashing by. She howls in the car when it's dark outside.

7. Ever since her first bath in the hospital, Ellie has loved tubby time. She still loves it; bath time is one of her favorite times of the day.

8. Ellie has a wry sense of humor. She's never been one of those kids who's all smiles; instead, she's very selective about what she considers to be funny or amusing. She smiled early, but she doesn't smile often. She's serious but certainly not humorless.

9. Ellie's very sensitive to overheating. We learned this the hard way when we bundled her up too much during those sub-freezing winter days. It turns out that Ellie would rather be too cold than too hot. Don't talk to her about cold wind in her face, though--she's not a fan!

10. Ellie loves being close to her moms in the Maya wrap or the front carrier. However, she likes her independence, too--she plays by herself under her baby gym for as long as an hour. Ellie has a v. long attention span.